Christmas robber sentenced to life in prison

A Crescent City man found guilty of trying to rob two women at knifepoint in Ukiah just days before Christmas was sentenced to nearly 100 years in prison Friday, according to Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster.

Superior Court Judge John Behnke sentenced Robert Lee White, 50, to 98 years-to-life for two counts of attempted robbery and one count of threatening the husband of one of the victims. White, who was found guilty of those charges at trial last month, had previously been convicted of four prior "Strike" convictions.

Eyster notes that White's sentence is the "second longest Three Strikes sentence imposed on any defendant in Mendocino County since voters approved Proposition 184, the original Three Strikes law, in 1994.

"My goal in prosecuting Mr. White was to achieve a final result that promises the community that Mr. White will never again be given the freedom to pull a knife on, threaten and victimize people in Mendocino County," Eyster said in a statement. "In light of the sentence imposed by the court, that goal has been achieved."

According to Eyster, White was first convicted at age 18 in 1982 of first-degree burglary and false imprisonment and paroled in 1985. In 1996, White was sent back to state prison for criminal threats, paroled again in 1997, then returned to state prison two years later for two robberies, one in Alameda County and one in Humboldt County.

He was paroled again in June of last year, and was on state parole supervision during the attempted robberies in Ukiah.

According to the UPD, those incidents began around 11:20 a.m. Dec. 20 when a woman walking to her car in the Pear Tree Shopping Center on East Perkins Street was approached by a man, later identified as White, with a knife who demanded money.

When the woman began screaming, her husband got out of their car to intervene and White walked away. The husband called the police and followed White into a nearby business.

When White exited the business, he reportedly threatened the husband for calling the UPD, which responded to the shopping center. An officer then located White in the 200 block of North Orchard Avenue, where he had reportedly had just approached another woman in her 60s.

That victim reported that she was returning to her car after shopping and was attempting to load her items into her car when White approached her, telling her to get into her car or he would hurt her. When she refused, he demanded money, but then saw the UPD officer and walked away.

White was apprehended and placed under arrest. He reportedly told officers he had hitchhiked from Crescent City less than 24 hours earlier and was on his way to San Francisco. He had been dropped off at Walmart on Airport Park Boulevard with $1,200 and an ounce of methamphetamine he intended to sell in San Francisco.

He said he was robbed of his money and drugs and his motive for the attempted robberies was to get more money so he could continue on his way.

The longest Three Strikes sentence imposed in Mendocino County was 105 years-to-life, given to William Newport in 1996, the "so-called Mendocino arsonist."